“Surprisingly well, once I explained that I was an amateur trying to learn to cook at home. Most places I’ve asked have given me tips.”
“Huh.” Shay shrugged. “Okay, let’s try it out, then. See if you actually applied any of those tips.”
Peyton eagerly sliced the pepperoni pizza and placed a piece on a sandwich-sized paper plate. He handed it to Shay and awaited her verdict. Lily bit her lip, waiting for a sign.
Shay took several deep breaths and bit into the pizza. She tilted her head and chewed slowly. Good balance of flavors, good texture. No bizarre vinegar taste. She swallowed.
“I should pull my gun on you,” she announced.
Peyton’s shoulders slumped. “It’s that bad?”
Shay laughed. “No, it’s actually pretty good.”
“Why pull your gun then?”
“Because you’re obviously some wizard pretending to be Peyton.”
The man smirked. “I’m no wizard. I’m the Pizza King.” He high-fived Lily and strutted back and forth while Lily let out a whoop and held out her hands for a plate of pizza.
“Finally!” she exclaimed.
Shay snorted. “Not yet, you’re not. More of a Pizza Squire, but if you have improved this much in such a short period, who the hell knows?”
“You’re saying it was a good thing I bought the oven?”
“I didn’t shoot you over it, did I?”
Peyton gave a piece to Lily and picked up a slice of the pizza and took a bite. His face lit up. “Damn, this is good!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Shay parked her black rental van on the beach at the end of Montrose Avenue. The heavy cloud cover blocked the stars and the moon, but light from the high-rises on the other side of Michigan Avenue reflected off the water, slightly illuminating the beach.
If anyone wandered into the area they might not spot the van from a distance, but she still risked discovery.
Fortunately, at this time of night only the homeless and coyotes wandered the area, and the tomb raider hadn’t spotted either of those. The icy cutting wind sweeping across Lake Michigan was more than enough to deter anyone without a strong reason to be there that night.
The tomb raider had chosen the location for that reason. It also provided a straight swim to the caves—if the Professor’s information was correct, but she’d yet to go on a raid of his where that hadn’t been the case.
The man might hold back information or twist words, but he’d never lied to her. At least not yet.
Wonder what that first time will be about? Saving your ass, Smite-Williams, or saving mine?
A little recon was in order. Caution always cut down on surprises, and cutting down on surprises tended to cut down on deaths.
Shay pulled a mini-drone from the back of the van and linked the visual feed to her AR goggles. She activated the machine and surveyed the area in the IR and visual bands. No people or surface animals, visible or otherwise, slept or walked anywhere near her location in either band.
“What, no invisible army? I’m almost disappointed.”
She searched with the drone for a few more minutes. She not only sought high-temperature readings indicative of animals or people but also low temperatures that might be associated with ice magic. An additional five-minute sweep confirmed that Shay was alone.
“I didn’t want to deal with that bitch yet anyway,” she grumbled.
The tomb raider brought the drone down behind the truck and lifted her AR goggles. She proceeded to pull a cylindrical aquatic drone out of the back of the van.
The reflected light of the Chicago buildings might be enough to keep the area from being pitch-black, but that light would be worthless once she was a few feet under the water. Shay needed to make sure she knew exactly where she was going before she stepped one inch into the frigid water.
Besides, the way things had turned out for her on some recent raids, she wouldn’t have been surprised if both the Loch Ness Monster or Ogopogo or angry mermaids popped out of the cave to try to eat her.
Such creatures had no reason to be in Lake Michigan, but neither did a strange alien stone. The world didn’t make sense anymore, and the only way to keep her sanity was to accept that magic made cause and effect ambiguous.
Shay slipped the drone into the water and again lowered her AR goggles to watch the feed live. She waited until the machine was twenty feet down before activating its camera.
Its forward lights cut through the darkness as the drone continued to dive. The submersible approached the bottom and skimmed along for several minutes until a jagged opening appeared in the lake floor.
The tomb raider maneuvered the drone toward the rift for a better look. The crevice widened into a silt-lined cave angling down from the initial hole. The level of magic necessary to keep the massive amount of water above from pouring in stunned Shay.
She shook out her head and refocused on the job.
Okay, I’ve confirmed the caves are there and there’re no kraken around, but it’s not like I can send an aquatic drone farther in. Guess it’s time to go in myself.
Shay brought the drone up and stored it in the back of the van before initiating the awkward process of putting on her cold-water diving equipment.
Sometimes she entertained the notion of training Peyton for field work and bringing him along if only to help her gear up in similar situations, like a squire helping his knight put on armor.
The problem was that easy raids with only mild environmental threats had grown increasingly rare compared to those that required gunplay or had extreme physical dangers. If Shay wanted the big money, she needed to take the big risks.
The tomb raider could. She’d trained for it most of her life, given her former profession. She didn’t care how good Peyton might get at making pizza; he’d never have the levels of combat and physical skills necessary for her to feel comfortable with him watching her back.
Brownstone was one of the few men she’d ever
